now to try to end the civil war in syria, where 40,000 people have died. we can't just stay at home. >> axelrod: do you think people look at the notion of peace and say "look, peace is wonderful, it's noble, it's terrific for us to aspire to but i'll talk to you about peace airfare feel safe." >> it's night binary choice. peace or security. you have to have both. but a great society will always remind itself that in the final analysis, our greatness will be determined by whether or not we're striving for peace. that's why we rate lincoln and washington and martin liewcter king and franklin delano roosevelts as among the greatest leaders we ever had because they all stood for peace especially when times were very, very difficult. >> axelrod: you mentioned a number of politicians that you could tick off as pursuing peace a generation ago. are there a similar list of politicians to mention now? >> it's hard to find sitting presidents and prime ministers who are saying to their people, "my overriding goal is peace in our country or peace in the world." our pol